IGN wrote:“Metal Gear was an action game,” Kojima tells IGN, “but it was an action game where you happened to be hiding. There was no genre for that back then, and now it’s classified as a stealth game. In that regard, Death Stranding will also be an action game, but I want to make something new, something different.”

Kojima has said before that Kojima Productions’ upcoming project, revealed on Monday during Sony’s E3 2016 press conference, will appeal to fans of “AAA titles such as The Division and Uncharted.”

“People that play [action] games will be able to pick it up easily,” Kojima tells IGN. “After that, like 2-3 hours into the game, they will start feeling like, ‘okay, this is something different, this is something new.’”

"...so many things are connected..."

While Kojima didn’t dive too deeply into what this means for Death Stranding’s gameplay, he did reveal some details about the game’s themes.

One of the key things evident from Death Stranding’s E3 2016 reveal trailer is “the idea of life and death being connected to each other,” according to Kojima.

“Animals are connected with each other, people are connected to each other, so many things are connected,” Kojima tells IGN.

But it’s a short story by Kobo Abe that Kojima points to as a way to explain one of Death Stranding’s strongest themes.

“In this short story, Abe states that the first tool mankind created is a stick,” Kojima tells IGN. “He states that the stick is the first tool that mankind created to put distance between himself and bad things — to protect himself. He states that the second tool mankind created is a rope. A rope is a tool used to secure things that are important to you.”

Kojima points to the umbilical cord in the trailer, and the rope-like “umbilical cords” hanging from the actual title of the game.“...there are other “small messages” hidden in the trailer.

“Most of your tools in action games are sticks,” Kojima continues. “You punch or you shoot or you kick. The communication is always through these ‘sticks.’ In [Death Stranding], I want people to be connected not through sticks, but through what would be the equivalent of ropes… But of course you will be able to use the sticks too.”

How this idea manifests in-game remains to be seen, but Kojima says there are other “small things and small messages” hidden in the Death Stranding trailer.